Learn about the attempts to purge the US ary and feral ernment of gay and lbian employe durg the Cold War and s later.
Contents:
- YOU'VE PROBABLY HEARD OF THE RED SRE, BUT THE LSER-KNOWN, ANTI-GAY 'LAVENR SRE' IS RARELY TGHT SCHOOLS
- GAY HISTORY: 9 THGS TO KNOW ABOUT ‘THE LAVENR SRE’
- THE LAVENR SRE: GAY AND LBIAN LIFE POST-WWII AMERI
- HOW A LAVENR RHO BEME A SYMBOL OF GAY RISTANCE IN '70S BOSTON
YOU'VE PROBABLY HEARD OF THE RED SRE, BUT THE LSER-KNOWN, ANTI-GAY 'LAVENR SRE' IS RARELY TGHT SCHOOLS
We learn about the Red Sre school, but not about the Lavenr Sre, the policy that discrimated agast gay ernment employe * lavender gay history *
Newspapers nounced Athet as effemate, not least one of the proment lears of the movement, Osr Wil, who equently remisced about his “purple hours” spent wh rent boys, and provoked a moral sndal wh the homoerotic them “The Picture of Dorian Gray. Gay men Ameri were tnted for posssg a “dash” or “streak” of lavenr, thanks large part to Abraham Lln’s bgrapher Carl Sandburg, who scribed one of the print’s early male iendships as ntag a “streak of lavenr, and spots soft as May vlets. Durg the McCarthy era, there was state-sanctned discrimatn when print Eisenhower signed Executive Orr 10450, which beme part of a natnal wch-hunt to purge homosexual men and women om the feral ernment.
Lavenr sash and armbands were distributed to a crowd of hundreds a “gay power” march om Washgton Square Park to Stonewall Inn New York, to memorate the Stonewall rts that had jt taken place a month before.
The lor, St Clair said, has been buoyed by the ton achieved by the LGBTQ muny recent years, cludg some untry’s mov to legalize same-sex marriage, and the US, gay mayor Pete Buttigieg’s printial n and last year’s Met Gala theme of “Camp: Not on Fashn.
GAY HISTORY: 9 THGS TO KNOW ABOUT ‘THE LAVENR SRE’
(Above, right, powerful and closeted gay lawyer Roy Cohn was stmental creatg anti-Communist fervor.) Filmmaker Josh Howard discs his forthg documentary on dark days Amerin history. Tomorrow's a lamentable anniversary for the Uned Stat: was 60 years ago, on April 27, 1953, that Print Eisenhower put his John Hanck an executive orr… * lavender gay history *
” The “attacks on gay and transgenr civil rights by the current admistratn, ” she add, has also creased the spotlight on the muny, enuragg them “to rally around each other and explore and celebrate intifyg symbols that have been important to them the past. Newspapers nounced Athet as effemate, not least one of the proment lears of the movement, Osr Wil, who equently remisced about his "purple hours" spent wh rent boys, and provoked a moral sndal wh the homoerotic them "The Picture of Dorian Gray. Gay men Ameri were tnted for posssg a "dash" or "streak" of lavenr, thanks large part to Abraham Lln's bgrapher Carl Sandburg, who scribed one of the print's early male iendships as ntag a "streak of lavenr, and spots soft as May vlets.
Eisenhower’s Executive Orr 10450, the vtigatn, terrogatn and systematic removal of gay men and lbians om the feral ernment beme policy.
Known as the “Lavenr Sre, ” the policy was based on the unfound fear that gay men and lbians “posed a threat to natnal secury bee they were vulnerable to blackmail and were nsired to have weak moral characters, ” says historian David K. Joseph McCarthy’s fear-mongerg “Red Sre” mpaign the early 1950s, which targeted alleged subversive munists workg the feral ernment, thoands of ernment employe were forced out of their jobs as a rult of the anti-gay policy. The polil and moral fears about alleged subversiv beme tertwed wh a backlash agast homosexualy, as gay and lbian culture had grown visibily the post-war years.
THE LAVENR SRE: GAY AND LBIAN LIFE POST-WWII AMERI
From Regency England to 1920s Harlem to Miss Piggy, gay vernacular has given voice to homosexual inty and sire a hostile world. In some parts, still do. * lavender gay history *
The Lavenr Sre tied the notns together, nflatg gay people wh munists and allegg they uld not be tsted wh ernment secrets and labellg them as secury risks, even though there was no evince to prove this.
Johnson timat that somewhere between 5, 000 and 10, 000 people lost their jobs as a rult of the Lavenr Sre, although is difficult to know the te number of people affected, as the policy acted as a terrent to any gay man or lbian woman who would have been prospective ndidat for ernment jobs. Acrdg to a 1983 oral history terview wh drag kg Rty Brown, who served the Navy, the fear went even beyond Washgton, permeatg the entertament dtry Hollywood and the bars and nightclubs New York Cy, as people were aaid they would be fired if their employers found out they were gay.
HOW A LAVENR RHO BEME A SYMBOL OF GAY RISTANCE IN '70S BOSTON
* lavender gay history *
By 1965, Kameny and other gay men and lbians were picketg outsi the Whe Hoe and helpg other fired employe wh their urt s. And although 1975 the Civil Service Commissn announced new l that meant gay people uld no longer be barred or fired om feral employment bee of their sexualy, discrimatn ntued other agenci where employe had secury clearance, like the NSA, where Shoemaker worked.
Wh the civil rights activist’s help, Shoemaker beme the first gay employee at the NSA to keep their job and their secury clearance after such an vtigatn, unr the ndn that he told his fay he was gay.
And although Pete Buttigieg was recently announced as print-elect Joe Bin’s pick for Transportatn Secretary, which would make him the first openly gay Cabet member, discrimatn agast members of the LGBTQ muny is still prent current U. Purple hu have been associated wh LGBTQ muni sce the time of Sappho (more on her later), but lavenr fully entered the gay lexin at the end of the 19th century. The lor lavenr saw another boost queer visibily when was donned by participants a “gay power” march New York Cy 1969, a month after the pivotal Stonewall Rts.